Environment / Sustainability

Barnard presents Feb. 13 Water Resources Seminar

The second presentation in this semester's Interdisciplinary Water Resources Seminar series will feature Holly Barnard, assistant professor of geography at the University of Colorado-Boulder. She will discuss her research into the links between forests, soil water, and streamflow in a water resources context in a talk titled, "Ecohydrology of Forested Catchments: investigations of transpiration and subsurface hydrology."

The links between streamflow and forests are poorly understood. Processes operating in the hydrosphere, geosphere, and biosphere interact at multiple scales to determine the structure, function, and health of terrestrial ecosystems. Although over the past 60 years, numerous studies have examined soil hydrologic processes, vegetation function, and micro-climate independently; investigating the feedbacks among these core areas has only recently become a research priority.

Fundamental questions of forests' effect on the hydrologic cycle remain unanswered: At what depth do trees access soil moisture? To what extent does transpiration affect streamflow? Why is transpiration so tightly coupled to soil moisture and climate, whereas, streamflow dynamics are dominated by threshold behavior?

CSU alum

Barnard recieved her masters in Forest Science at Colorado State
University in 2000 and a dual degree Ph.D. in Forest Engineering and
Forest Science from Oregon State University in 2009. Her current research
is focused on investigating how vegetation processes affect water flow
dynamics and pathways in soil and streams, and conversely, how water
flow paths affect vegetation function in mountainous terrain. Her research
interests include ecohydrology, stable isotope geochemistry, forest
hydrology, and tree physiology.

The seminar takes place from noon to 1 p.m. in Lory Student Center Room 226, and is open to all interested faculty, students and guests.. The IWRS series is sponosred by CSU Water Center; USDA-ARS, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Forest and Rangeland Stewardship, and the School for Global Environmental Sustainability.

Seminars will be presented weekly through May 1. For more information, contact Nancy Grice at nancy.grice@colostate.edu, (970) 491-6724.